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Well, that was it for me I wanted to return the dryads io," she whispered

"Yeah, let’s"

We turned our backs on the Court as Brighid exchanged farewells with the Olyers We had a mission

"The faster we do this, the better off we’ll be," I said to Granuaile once ere out of earshot "While all the Olys over and send et this done"

"I’m all for it," Granuaile said, "but I’d like a fresh set of clothes first"

"Oh Right"

We returned first to the workshop to pick up Oberon, then we shifted to a safe house of sorts in the Uncore Wilderness in southwestern Colorado It was a cabin located near the old Caht it under an alias six years ago to conduct some business with Odin Surrounded by a forest tethered to Tír na nÓg, it was an ideal rendezvous point and a place to store changes of clothes for times like these It was also out of Coyote’s territory and a safe place for Oberon to spend some tie doggie door and plenty of food and water--not to alore

Granuaile and I changed clothes quickly and told Oberon he’d be on his own for a while

"How long?"

"Hopefully only a few hours Less than three months You are terrible with tio into any mine shafts around here They’re off limits, you understand? If a squirrel runs inside, you count hiet to pretend that they are Batcaves either You can’t save Gotham fro, buddy" I petted hi on a replace knives and kissed his head

"I hope we’ll get to go hunting with you soon," she said

"Yeah! Maybe we’ll try for caribou There are fewer pungent aromas in the tundra"

"That’s very considerate of you," she said, s

"Hey, will you put in disc two of The Fellowship of the Ring before you go? I need a refresher on the mines of Moria"

Chapter 24

We shifted to the first dryad’s tree in Oly no one, I opened a portal to the island of slow time, with the ad to have you do the later ones"

"Okay Why don’t we just open portals wherever ant?"

"You can’t open them at all if you’re not in an area that’s been bound to Tír na nÓg But we avoid they We shift via trees because it requires the least ae portal to hell drained the earth and killed it"

Parts of the dead land around Tony Cabin were functioning on a basic level again, but large patches were still dead, and it had taken us years of toil to bring it back even to weak levels of life

The first dryad we’d separated from her tree stared uncertainly back at us, suspended in round of the Time Island Her arrab hold of this plane I held on to Granuaile’s left hand and told her to reach through and pull the dryad back with her other

"I don’t need so as half of you stays here, you won’t get pulled into that tih? Won’t that cause whiplash or soun to fall Gravity just figured out she’s in the air above the island, but she hasn’t even had a full second to fall five yards or so Look at her She’s hardlyher back right noould be no worse than one of those tango moves where you extend your arently Reht" Granuaile reached through the portal and took her tiers around the dryad’s wrist "Ready?"

"Yep Do it"

Granuaile pulled, the dryad found her feet on solid ground again, then reeled as soon as Granuaile let her go The dryad blinked and sat down heavily underneath the canopy of her tree

"What happened? My head spins"

"Sorry about that," I said in Latin

She peered at me and her eyes widened "Your face Wasn’t half of it scarred and o?" She noticed that Granuaile looked different too "And now you have strange ic of the earth and of the Fae," I replied "I apologize for the inconvenience and whatever pain you et the attention of Faunus He wasn’t allowing me to bind my apprentice to the earth, you see But all is well now, or will be shortly I’ to mend the broken bonds with your tree"

"How?"

"The same way I unbound the your bond with the tree?"